This story made me laugh. Maybe The Husband should grow a beard after all. Well, not during the Air Force rotations at least. Also, maybe I’ll take advantage of 3 lbs./$5 strawberries at Food Lion after the final(!) test.

The Commissary is the military equivalent of a grocery store. The difference between The Commissary and a regular grocery store is the grocery store sells things for profit and The Commissary sells things at cost plus 5% for overhead.

There can be some great savings, but not always. It pays to be compare prices to the local grocery store. I’ve been a few times, and only to one Commissary, so this shouldn’t be taken as “The Commissary Bible,” but here are some of the things I’ve learned.

Generics, Coupons, and Loss Leaders

The Commissary does not sell generics. Everything is name brand. The prices are comparable to generics at regular grocery stores, so if you’re already buying generic, you won’t save much money.

The Commissary accepts manufacturer coupons. However, since they are operating basically at cost, they do not double them like other grocery stores sometimes do. There are also no loss leaders for the same reason. If you’re an avid couponer, you may get better deals at a more coupon-friendly/rewards type of store.

If you’re a not-so-avid couponer, The Commissary is a better deal. There are rarely coupons for generics, but brand names have coupons all the time. Since the starting price is roughly the same, name brand plus coupon works out cheaper.

The Husband re-started classes on Wednesday, and since there were only 3 days of class to fall behind on, and despite our slow-to-return health, we went out this weekend.

Friday night we went with friends to the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens to see the Gardenfest of Lights. Military Discount FTW! The Toddler enjoyed running around and staring at the Christmas lights and model trains. We also unexpectedly ran into a college acquaintance of mine who also has a toddler, so we’re going to try to meet up sometime for a playdate/catching up session.

The Toddler in front of the Dragon Tunnel at Lewis Ginter.

Christmas Tree decorated with (faux) botanicals at Lewis Ginter.

Paper crane chandelier at Lewis Ginter.

Pavilion at Lewis Ginter.

Fountain at Lewis Ginter.

Automotive garage dollhouse at Lewis Ginter.

Temari (thread) balls at Lewis Ginter.

Fairy castle dollhouse at Lewis Ginter. About 4 ft. tall!

One model train setup had a house on fire and a fire truck to the rescue. It was our favorite.

Saturday morning was our long-awaited trip to Fort Lee for the Commissary. As we drove in we passed some very nice officer housing, a golf course, fitness trail, track and nicely manicured lawns. Allegedly the Air Force stations are nicer than Army ones, so I think we’ll be pretty happy staying on base.

The verdict on the Commissary is that it’s great for dog food and cleaning supplies, good for meat and frozen items, and about even for produce and dairy, with variation within the categories. Kielbasa and ground turkey were really cheap, chicken breasts were about the same as the local stores. Yogurt was half-price. If you already shop mostly generics though, it won’t save much money. Everything there was name brand. There was a great selection of produce, international, and luxury* items, so I’ll definitely be heading there again to stock up for parties.

I’m glad we went, but I’ll stick with the local stores for most of my grocery shopping. I’ll probably go once a month or so to stock up on meat and dog food.

As we left, we saw a platoon? (troop? brigade? About 30) of army privates sweeping the parking lot.

Finally, on Sunday we met a larger group of friends at Alamo BBQ. There was a Groupon, so we decided to check it out. It was pretty good and we’ll probably go back, so Groupon accomplished? We were a little taken aback that it wasn’t really a restaurant so much as a food stand, but there was a tent and it was gorgeous out according to the people from Canada, Seattle, and New Hampshire. To the Southern Californian, not so much. He ended up borrowing my jacket. We talked about books we read over break (Abraham Verghese seemed a popular choice), about the upcoming preceptorships (15 miles away is apparently considered “close” to school) and how we all (me included!) were glad Gross Anatomy was over.

That evening I met up with my gym buddy for the first time since early December. Today my pecs are sore!

Made some chocolate chip cookies for the college freshmen in the family and mailed those off.

The Husband signed me up as his “Plus One” at the MCV gym, so now I can continue my quest to do my second lifetime pull-up. (The first and only was in 6th grade for the Presidential Fitness Test.)

Checked out the Farmers Market in Forest Hill Park on Saturday. It was a bit overwhelming with the crowds, but we picked up some fresh corn-on-the-cob and some sausage. Several places were advertising fall farm shares, so I’ll look at the details next week and perhaps get one. That way I’m less likely to be paralyzed by all the choices and maybe I’ll branch out a bit with vegetables.

We took those sausages and had some school friends over for dinner. It was the best sausage and peppers I’ve had. Normally I hate peppers, but this recipe made them so sweet. Maybe it was the wine?

Sunday, The Husband went to the library to study for his second test and afterwards we met up with his classmate T and T’s wife and 16-month-old at the park. We intended to go to Belle Isle, but driving in we saw a festival at Brown’s Island so we went there instead. The Baby enjoyed crawling around and throwing gravel. The Husband got a free burger because the food tent was packing up. I spoke to a human being that I don’t live with IN PERSON. It was a good time.

And then at 8:05 p.m., The Baby took 3 steps in a row. He is now known as The Toddler.

In moving from New Hampshire to Richmond, I was expecting a North/South cultural shift, not a suburban/urban one nor a socioeconomic one, although I probably should have realized the latter if I’d actually thought about it.

My views regarding the North vs. South cultural divergence are colored from the four years in undergrad I spent in Fredericksburg, about halfway between Richmond and D.C. I was regularly called a Damn Yankee, told to go home, and once was even accused of perpetuating a 140-year-long military occupation. (This was ten years ago, obviously. I feel old.) My ancestors were accused of raping their ancestors, despite the fact that the Irish half of my ancestors didn’t fight by quirk of everyone being too old/too young and the other half of my ancestors were still in Italy.

In Richmond, not one person has mentioned the Civil War to me or called me a Yankee, damned or otherwise.

I wasn’t expecting a suburban/urban split. I lived in Boston for a year and the Shaw’s in Dorchester was exactly like the one in New Hampshire, albeit more crowded and with a bigger International Foods aisle. Visiting the local Food Lion, I thought I was in a food desert. Looking at the USDA website, food desert status is confirmed. The deli is mostly nonexistent. The have 2 types of ham, 2 types of turkey, and 2 types of cheese that can be sliced to order. That’s it. The rest is prepackaged lunch meat. Most of the store is devoted to frozen foods and snacks.

The freezer cases are probably 1/3 of the store. The freezer case is also where I’ve seen most of my North vs. South differences. Frozen okra, turnip greens, and butter beans were prominent. I also saw “Chicken Biscuits” in the frozen breakfast foods aisle instead of just the sausage and egg ones. I did not get a picture of those because someone else was in the aisle by then and I didn’t want to seem as weird as I apparently am. I did not see pierogies, kielbasa, or Italian sausage, which are (well, were) staples or our diet.

There was a small basket of artichokes, so I took two and put them in my cart. Two women were next to me and one said to the other (completely not trying to keep from being overheard), “Why the hell would anyone want to eat cactus leaves?” At the checkout, again “What are these?”

Which brings me to the third type of difference: socioeconomic. Richmond is poor. New Hampshire (at least the southern part) is not.

Driving to the 83 different hardware stores this weekend to find a dryer outlet that I returned only 20 minutes later, I saw a store called “Fresh to Frozen Grocery Salvage.” Oh my. This may be my east-coast-educated-liberal-elite side talking, but eww. When I said the produce at the local Food Lion “seem[ed] of reasonable quality,” I mean you could find some good ones if you dug around. I only bought two peaches last night because I could only find two good peaches. I shudder to think of the quality of stuff “salvaged” from there. This reviewer found items there that were 3 years past their expiration date. The second paragraph inadvertently says a lot.

Fresh-to-Frozen grocery salvage is located in the old Ukrop’s space at 7803 Midlothian Turnpike, just off the Chippenham exit past what was Cloverleaf Mall.

Ukrop’s: out of business.

Cloverleaf Mall: don’t know, but I’m guessing it wasn’t a name change.

To walk into the Food Lion, you pass at least 2 homeless men in the parking lot. There are WIC tags everywhere. I have never seen those before, not in Boston, not in Market Basket.